UK-based hedge fund manager Chris Hohn gave £324 million ($638 million) to his charitable foundation last year, making the activist investor among the most generous of the current wave of UK philanthropists, according to media reports.

Mr Hohn, founder of The Children's Investment fund, donated the money together with other partners of the hedge fund to the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, a linked charity run by Jamie Cooper-Hohn, his wife.

The donation follows several bumper years for the aggressive hedge fund, currently fighting high-profile battles with companies in the US and Japan, which have evoked national security in an effort to push back TCI.

The donation pushed the charity's endowment over £800 million, thanks to a combination of previous donations by Mr Hohn and TCI - including £230 million the previous year - and the reinvestment of most of the money in the hedge fund.

TCI automatically donates 0.5 per cent of assets and an extra 0.5 per cent if annual returns pass 11 per cent, while Mr Hohn usually donates his share of profits.

According to documents filed late yesterday with the Charities Commission, the charity received a profit share of £276 million from TCI, controlled by Mr Hohn. Further donations, including income from TCI's US fund, pushed the total to £324 million.

The donations are among the biggest ever made to charity by a UK citizen, and the total size of the foundation - although it includes investment profit as well as donations - is already close to the £1 billion Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter has pledged to give away in his lifetime.

However, Mr Hohn's charitable work is frequently overshadowed by accusations from management of companies he targets that TCI represents the unacceptable face of capitalism.

He received a public rebuke from a US federal judge two weeks ago amid a court battle with CSX, the US rail network where TCI is trying to win board seats, and he was dubbed a "locust" by German politicians amid a successful fight with Deutsche Börse, the German stock exchange.

Political supporters of CSX on Capitol Hill have called for TCI to be blocked from holding five of 12 board seats it is bidding for on the grounds that they are anonymous foreigners. In Japan TCI's efforts to double its stake in J-Power, the power company, were blocked by the government on national security grounds, although it continues to push for a higher dividend payout.